


Adderall

by guilty_heroes



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Addiction, Dark(er), F/M, Mentions of Sex, Post-Tartarus (Percy Jackson), Rewriting Canon, Weird Demigod Stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:35:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29233884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guilty_heroes/pseuds/guilty_heroes
Summary: Adderall works differently on demigods. It's a well-known fact around camp.It's also a well-known fact that the Athena cabin has a slight addiction.Percy's dealt enough with addiction.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 68





	Adderall

It’s a well known secret around camp that the Athena cabin is addicted to Adderall.

Annabeth would never really call it an “addiction” – “we’re smarter than that, Seaweed Brain. It’s just useful.” Percy had walked into the Athena cabin at 4 in the afternoon to find the entire group of Aryan bastards tunneled into whatever work they were doing. None of them turned towards him, none of them even acknowledged his presence before they all said at once “Hey Percy”. Percy initially thought they were all possessed before he had remembered when Annabeth got into that same trance at home.

Percy was never one for the drug. He definitely could have used it at some point, but really he didn’t mesh well with it at all. Adderall worked differently with demigods than it did with mortals. For demigods, Adderall worked as it was designed to. It tunneled your brain into one singular focus for about three hours. An Athena kid had designed it for demigods, realized it worked fine on mortals, and became rich off of it. And for Athena kids, it was a dream drug. They had enough mental acumen to know what to focus on when they took it.

Unlike Percy who could take it and zone in on a fly buzzing around his house for three hours, following it out to the street and nearly getting hit by a car. Not that that had ever happened. 

But the drug was a stimulant too, which made taking it a real trip. It allowed a demigod to focus in on one thing, but  _ not _ at the expense of losing awareness. Instead it heightened awareness. So you’re stuck reading a book, trapped in that world, but you can literally hear ants crawling across the floor and the neighbor a block down taking out the trash. 

It also stimulated, uh, other actions. After about three hours of focus, the cognitive control part wears off and you’re left with the stimulant. Whenever Percy takes it he mostly uses the wear-off period to kill as many monsters he can. Whenever Annabeth takes it, however, she ends up… well, Athena may be a virgin but her kids definitely aren’t. 

Honestly, Annabeth uses it way too much. Which only became truly apparent when Percy met her again in New Rome. Adderall isn’t addictive for demigods – no stimulant really is for a demigod, but depressants definitely are (see: Johnson, Dakota) – and the side effects are normally less severe. Sure, for the three-or-so hours you’re taking it you don’t eat and sometimes you have to remember to breathe, but the effects fade. Percy’s heard of Athena kids who have taken about ten in a row and forget to eat for a whole day. 

(And by heard of he means that he had to force-feed Annabeth to eat during the whole Labyrinth saga.)

So when she comes to him, skin stretched across bone, gaunt eyes, bitten-down nails, and ratty hair – still looking like a goddess – man, is he worried. 

Over the course of the Argo II, he manages to get her to eat more, manages to get her body weight up again, gets her to sleep more. He had to break Coach Hedge’s bat for that last one to happen. He still curses Chiron to this day. A fucking chaperone? What are they, four-year-old mortals? He’s having sex with his girlfriend who he’s been separated from for eight months, Chiron can go stick his horse-dick up his own ass, for fuck’s sake.

Then comes Tartarus, which is a fucking disaster. Percy doesn’t know if these are what withdrawals look like – the only addicts he’s ever really dealt with always got their next fix – but Annabeth’s shaking in his arms, wide-awake, nearly having a panic-attack. His Wise Girl hadn’t had a panic attack in  _ years _ , since the Labyrinth.

Which was coincidentally the last time he had seen her so dependent on this drug.

When they both drag themselves through the gaping doors of death, the dead bodies of hundreds of monsters, one giant, two Titans, and one miserable god left behind, he makes the unilateral decision that she is going to get  _ better _ . 

He doesn’t make her quit cold turkey, not in the middle of a quest for the world’s safety, and nor does he make her quit at all. He knows there are times when she needs it – truly needs it – and he’s not going to take it away from her completely. But he does start controlling the drug. He’s almost sick when he realizes that there’s a whole  _ cabinet _ of pills stored up in her – their, now – room.

Percy’s never been the controlling type. He doesn’t normally like to be in charge. Even when he is, Annabeth’s still the one in control. Being controlling like this reminds him of Gabe. But he swallows the bitter pill and limits her intake. 

It helps, a bit. She’s nicer to the rest of the Argo II, which is great because really Annabeth’s always been a bit of a bitch (but she’s his bitch so he’s never really minded – wait no that sounds really wrong he’s not- they’re not into that) but she’s been especially mean in his absence. Apparently. He wouldn’t know. He wasn’t there. Because it was his absence.

After Tartarus, defeating Gaia is kind of easy. 

Adjusting to school is hard. 

Getting Annabeth back to normal while being decidedly not back to normal himself is hard.

Annabeth needs the pills again to get through her homework in the right amount of time, and Percy kind of needs it too. He’s worried for both of them, though, after they try it once and get sucked into their own minds, spending three hours in a Tartarus panic-attack. 

They stop taking it for about a week after that. Percy isn’t sure if he should be impressed or scared that Annabeth refuses it as vigorously as he does. But that week is almost as bad as the panic-attack. They fall behind on sleep, school work, practice, their almost non-existent social life. 

It’s Annabeth, of course, who decides to try it again. But this time she waits till after they’ve fucked each other silly and doused in a happy post-sex haze and cuddling. It helps, she says three hours later, to be in a good mindset. 

It does help. He gets work done, he slowly brings his grades up to a B average. And Annabeth likes to spend more time in bed with him.

He only gets suspicious when the dark circles around her eyes get darker. Percy thought that the last month was good, that they were making progress. One night, as they both drift off to sleep, sweaty after a good night of sex, he refuses to sleep. He pretends, to the best of his abilities. Either he does a good job, or Annabeth is just that desperate that she takes the bait. She rises from his side, walks into the bathroom, and reaches into the medicine cabinet. 

“Annabeth,” he growls from the bed, sitting up straight, livid. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I-” she turns around and she looks so desperate and guilty that Percy’s heart breaks. But he can’t give up now, so he doesn’t. He rises from the bed, continuing his act. He knows what kinds of looks make her feel small, make her into not-Annabeth. 

“Annabeth.” He doesn’t like using this on her – in fact, he never has – but Percy is desperate. He’s not going to let her revert. “I thought we were making progress.”

He steps forward, bringing his shoulders back to broaden his frame. His chest is puffed out, his abs flexed, and his footsteps heavy as he advances on her. His eyes narrow when she curls in on herself, a move he doesn’t really remember  _ ever _ seeing his Wise Girl make. 

“I just… Percy,” she breathes out, a cry leaking through her throat, “Percy I need to get work done for Olympus, I  _ have  _ to make it perfect otherwise they’re going to –”

“Stop.” He cups his hand around her neck, brushing it with his thumb. He stares down at her, for once using his height advantage. “You don’t need to make it perfect so badly that you’re going to disappoint me behind my back, are you?”

“Well, I-”

“Annabeth.” Percy pushes her against the doorframe. “Don’t make excuses. If you thought this was okay, you’d have told me.”

Her eyes drop and she scratches her forearms. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m going to lock them away.”

Her eyes shoot up in a look close to terror. “No, Percy, please, please!”

“If you need extra time to work on Olympus, you can ask me, but Annabeth…” he trails off, running two fingers down her cheek. “I can’t have you fall down this pit again.”

She flinches again. Percy sees the hesitation in her eyes. She wants to fight him on this and part of him wants her to. His Wise Girl would. But his Wise Girl is tired and she knows that he’s right which is a good thing but it’s so not her that Percy’s almost upset that he’s won. “Okay,” she nods before pulling him into a tighter hug than he had ever gotten, even in New Rome. 

“You’re going to be okay,” he murmurs into the side of her head. His hand comes up to rub her head in that almost-uncomfortable rough way she likes. She murmurs, content, into his chest and warmth spreads through his body.

Pulling them back to the bed, Percy realizes that they’re both naked. He laughs at the sexy but also what-the-fuck-are-you-thinking-Annabeth idea of a naked Annabeth Chase doing six hours of work in three hours of a drugged up haze. “I want my Wise Girl back,” he tells her as they fall back into his messy bed. 


End file.
